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CCNTV6
  • 10 months ago
The Communication Workers Union says the 5-million-dollar compensation awarded to over 500 retrenched workers from TSTT is nowhere near enough.

President of the Union, Claire-Ann Leach-Lewis tells us it is unfair to the Workers sent home in 2018.


More from Nicole M Romany.
Transcript
00:00The Industrial Court has ordered TSTT to pay $10,000 to each of the retrenched employees.
00:08Head of the CWU Leach Lewis explains that the 503 retrenched staff suffered a lot of trauma.
00:17She tells TV6 some of them were given dismissal notice via email even after dedicating 10 years of service.
00:28Comrades of ours would have been deceased from heart attacks, different aspects.
00:32So to wait six years and then be told, okay, your time and your contribution and the trauma that you went through is worth $10,000.
00:40Of course, comrades, having gone through that, don't find that it's equitable and it's not fair
00:46based on the time and the contribution you would have made to the company.
00:50Secretary General Joanne Ogier says the basic salary within TSTT is not $10,000
00:58and as such, the union is exploring all legal options available to it, including an appeal.
01:05She says while the court did find a favour with the workers in awarding damages,
01:10she believes the meagre $10,000 is just a slap on the wrist.
01:16Employers need to be held accountable and we need to amend the IRA to have these fines increased
01:24so that an employer will be now taken more seriously to say, well, if I violate a collective agreement,
01:30which we say in the trade union movement is sacrosanct.
01:34You cannot, at your whim and fancy, do what you want, flagrantly disregard the collective agreement
01:41and in TSTT's case, just $5 million you have to pay? That is not acceptable.
01:47She says justice delayed is justice denied, noting that the anecdote reads true in this instance.
01:55With regard to the existing staff at the company, Ogier says negotiations are in progress
02:02and what the company has proposed is being rejected.
02:06The current workforce, they are depleted and rejected.
02:08Some persons have even said to the union, negotiate a visa, let me go home.
02:13The atmosphere in TSTT is a tiresome, burdensome and frustrated type of environmental work.
02:20So we are saying the company has declared profits and we have a CEO, Mr. Kent Weston,
02:25he is very open to the union, I must give him kudos for that, you know,
02:29but I'm saying to him as well as the persons who will sit at the table for TSTT,
02:34if you are interested in continuing industrial peace, come to the union and give us a better proposal.
02:41So we are looking forward to a better proposal, but 000 is not even an offer.
02:45Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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